Throw in "bent" while you're at it. I saw the Empty Building at the Rivers Edge Film Festival just recently and I have to tell you, it is rich in every aspect of film-making. Most intriguing was how they fed the emotional mind-set of the characters visiting the building and what they were up against. My girlfriend and I both felt we visited the building ourselves. It was clearly retrospective. There was a lot going on within the story structure: past and present time, who's who at what age and at times I was confused, but as the story unraveled it all came together convincingly, most especially with the last shot in the movie; simple yet immensely profound. What a high note to slam a story's conclusion with. For me, the established "high end" directors get away with confusing without the risk of being alienated. I watch because there's a sense I won't be let down. Giovanni Sanseviero, the director(and great actor too) has according to his web site, done nothing prior to this directorial debut of his. Wow, we were too glued to even think of splitting. Giovanni deserves a lot for making a film that is by any standards conventional and that's what I guess caught us off guard. His choices are in the line of a handful of these directors that most definitely have their own unique fingerprint to their work. I think and hope Giovanni will be one of these. I scored a 9 out of 10 and the reason its just shy of perfect? It should have been a feature!
